Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Eighty-Six: Freya & James - Redundant

Freya & James - Redundant

You are sat in front of the laptop Pepper has given you. You're beginning to grasp the use of it, and silently you thank Maggie for teaching you the basics. You have the Google search engine page sat in front of you but you are too much of a coward to type in the search you want it to do. Pepper said the internet has trillions upon trillions of files of information and that you can find anything you want on there.

You take a deep breath and type what you want into the search bar, but then you stop and stare at the screen. You delete it. You bite your lip and type it back in and then press the send button. The screen confirms what it is you are searching for.

Arthur and Anna Bowman.

Pages of records come up. You take a deep breath and start to run through them all, but nothing leaps out as the information you are looking for on your parents. You want to know what happened to them. You need to know. It was a thought you had when you were dying; you wondered if you would see them where you thought you were heading. And that thought stayed with you and has been in the back of your mind ever since.

There is a knock on the door and you get up and answer it. It's Pepper and you invite her in – after all this is her building.

"Sorry did I interrupt you?" she asks, nodding to the desk you were sat at and the open laptop.

"No, I was just...just trying to find some information thats all," you say and she picks up on the dejected tone in your voice.

"Can I help?" You shake your head but you keep on talking even though you don't mean to. "I was looking to see if I could find out what happened to my parents after I...was taken," you say, and she walks with you over to the screen.

"You never saw them again?" she asks and you shake your head.

"It doesn't matter...I mean, it does matter, but they would have been all right if they still had each other. They were devoted to each other you see."

Pepper senses something in your tone. "May I?" she asks pointing to the screen and you nod.

Somehow she brings up a blank e-mail and asks you for their names and dates of birth, then for the name of your home town, you spell it for her. She types them all in and then sends the message to herself. "I'll see what I can find out for you," she says as she straightens up.

"I don't want to be a bother..." you begin, but she interrupts you, smiling.

"You're not a bother, how many times do I have to tell you that?"

She has come to ask you if you would like to go out somewhere; Nat and Sam have both left for a few weeks and she is aware that there is only you, Steve and Bucky left with her and Tony.

"Thank you. Thats kind of you but I thought I would do some more listings in the library," you say. The thought of going outside horrifies you. You have only been out twice since you came here and both times you found it so busy, so bright out there. If you had a reason for going out you could cope, but without one the outside world was a frightening place.

Pepper looks at Freya. She is too pale, but Ales has warned her not to push. He wants her fit physically before they can work on her mental health. "Maybe next week," she says and Freya nods. "I'll leave you in peace then...oh, and I'll let you know if I find anything out about your parents okay."

She walks to the door and opens it. Freya thanks her again as closes the door behind her. Pepper decides that when Nat comes back she will ask her to drop by and persuade Freya to go out.